Hospital shifts patients for want of basic Covid-19 drugs

Incident happened at a private hospital in Ramgarh a few days ago; district officials claim no medicine shortage now

RANCHI: Amid the rapid rise in positive cases across Jharkhand, both hospitals and individuals were facing shortage of basic drugs prescribed for treatment of Covid-19. Facing this problem, a private hospital in Ramgarh was recently forced to shift all its Covid-19 patients to other hospitals, officials aid on Monday.

Proprietor of Niramaya Das Health Care Centre in Ramgarh, Dr Bhanu Das said, “I shifted all our Covid-19 patients to other hospitals where beds were available two to three days back, as we were facing acute shortage of Covid-19 related medicines. I have no right to keep patients in the dark if I can’t treat them in absence of the drugs.”

However, many patients at the hospital did not want to be shifted initially, Dr Das said. “I told them that I was ready to treat them provided they could arrange certain Covid-19 drugs. I gave them the prescription but they failed to find the medicines. Finally, they agreed to shift. We provided them hospital ambulance service for the same.”

There were 24 beds, including three oxygen supported ones and a ventilator, at the hospital.

Dr Das said demand of medicines used treating Covid-19 increased manifold with the rise in number of cases in the district.

“I have heard that some big hospitals were stocking the medicines to avoid shortage during treatment. Besides, common people are also panic purchasing the drugs and stocking them for emergency purposes,” he said, adding that more than half of the total staff at the institution were also suffering from the disease.

Director of state drugs control directorate Ritu Sahay could not be contacted for her comment over the issue despite repeated efforts. However, officials of Ramgarh administration said they received complaints about medicine shortage a couple of days back. “But now, there is no such shortage. Frequent inspection of medical stores is also being done,” they said.

Besides hospitals, Covid-19 patients, who are getting treatment while under home isolation, were also facing the same problem.

A resident of Tenughat in Bokaro district, Siddhartha Shankar, who was recently detected with infection, said, “Almost all essential medicines for the disease are out of stock here. Most of the medicines prescribed by doctors such as Doxycycline, Ivermectine, L Montus, Zincobit or Zinc tablet are not available at medicine stores here. In such situation, how do we treat ourselves in home isolation?”

Ramgarh registered 197 new cases and five deaths on Sunday, according to the state’s Covid-19 bulletin.

I shifted all Covid-19 patients to other hospitals where beds were available...I have no right to keep them in the dark if I can’t treat them in absence of drugs. DR BHANU DAS , Proprietor of Niramaya Das Health Care Centre